Rafa will be fine.
We can't write an all-time great off after a few matches.
Things just seem to get magnified when it's Rafa.
I have faith in him.
Rafa should have taken a wild card in Estoril and put some extra matches under his belt.
Rafa should have taken a wild card in Estoril and put some extra matches under his belt.
OK, I'll go with it, since you've been right on many things.
No tennis player in the top 50 wants to miss any matches and Rafa is no different. However, when he came back after the Australian Open so quickly I said to some friends, "what's he doing? Last year he rested and made sure he came back 10000% -- I cannot see how he has recuperated so quickly this time."
Of course, it's easy to say that after the fact.
I'm not a doctor, but I know backs are tricky. You can play for two hours not feeling anything, and then suddenly "BANG" - pain - and you can't do what you did a minute ago.
But then you have it in your head, no matter how healthy your DRs say you are, that sometime in the match you may get hit with "BANG". And it affects your game. And your head. And that is Rafa's problem.
Rafa IS defending 1000 points, but since Djoko is out.... #3 is far, far away from him. Still, you want to do your best, and RG is looming out there....
And Wawrinka could face him in the QFs....
No tennis player in the top 50 wants to miss any matches and Rafa is no different. However, when he came back after the Australian Open so quickly I said to some friends, "what's he doing? Last year he rested and made sure he came back 10000% -- I cannot see how he has recuperated so quickly this time."
Of course, it's easy to say that after the fact.
I'm not a doctor, but I know backs are tricky. You can play for two hours not feeling anything, and then suddenly "BANG" - pain - and you can't do what you did a minute ago.
But then you have it in your head, no matter how healthy your DRs say you are, that sometime in the match you may get hit with "BANG". And it affects your game. And your head. And that is Rafa's problem.
Rafa IS defending 1000 points, but since Djoko is out.... #3 is far, far away from him. Still, you want to do your best, and RG is looming out there....
And Wawrinka could face him in the QFs....
That's very true. The doctors can see that everything is fine on an X-ray, but that doesn't take into account niggling pains, stamina, or rest and recuperation.
I hope Rafa has fully recovered, though.
No tennis player in the top 50 wants to miss any matches and Rafa is no different. However, when he came back after the Australian Open so quickly I said to some friends, "what's he doing? Last year he rested and made sure he came back 10000% -- I cannot see how he has recuperated so quickly this time."
Of course, it's easy to say that after the fact.
I'm not a doctor, but I know backs are tricky. You can play for two hours not feeling anything, and then suddenly "BANG" - pain - and you can't do what you did a minute ago.
But then you have it in your head, no matter how healthy your DRs say you are, that sometime in the match you may get hit with "BANG". And it affects your game. And your head. And that is Rafa's problem.
Rafa IS defending 1000 points, but since Djoko is out.... #3 is far, far away from him. Still, you want to do your best, and RG is looming out there....
And Wawrinka could face him in the QFs....
you may be right general.
only thing missing right now is practice and match play. as soon as he can remove those deficiencies he will be back in business. he has to practice more and also string together a few match wins.
he could use a little more work on the fitness front also.
No tennis player in the top 50 wants to miss any matches and Rafa is no different. However, when he came back after the Australian Open so quickly I said to some friends, "what's he doing? Last year he rested and made sure he came back 10000% -- I cannot see how he has recuperated so quickly this time."
Of course, it's easy to say that after the fact.
I'm not a doctor, but I know backs are tricky. You can play for two hours not feeling anything, and then suddenly "BANG" - pain - and you can't do what you did a minute ago.
But then you have it in your head, no matter how healthy your DRs say you are, that sometime in the match you may get hit with "BANG". And it affects your game. And your head. And that is Rafa's problem.
Rafa IS defending 1000 points, but since Djoko is out.... #3 is far, far away from him. Still, you want to do your best, and RG is looming out there....
And Wawrinka could face him in the QFs....
you may be right general.
only thing missing right now is practice and match play. as soon as he can remove those deficiencies he will be back in business. he has to practice more and also string together a few match wins.
he could use a little more work on the fitness front also.
Do you think he was working on putting his backhand in play? I did. At one point I started counting them, because I hadn't seen the backhand for so long.
After #12, I figured he had come to Camelot and decided to listen to all the great advice here
.
we need to verify this. I saw this on facebook as I was having a lightening quick look there.
Toni Nadal said," We don't deserve the victory, Nishikori deserves it. He played better than us the whole time... We had a lot of luck today. We didn't really come back, he was hurt."
it almost sounds like uncle tony is not really happy with the way clay warrior played.
I have been looking at the highlights. rafa did not return well and he also tried running around his backhand a bit too much.
also I thought rafa's shots lacked the venom and the mustard. he did not hard enough and forcefully enough.
rafa has one hell of a window. he really needs to be taking advantage of this:
nole has wrist issues
andy murray is not 100%
roger is getting old
del potro is out of the game
rafa is allowing himself to be pushed around by the players he has not lost to in 10 years.
still there is a way out of this: just do all you can to win rome and RG and many of the issues go away temporarily.
for the long run, rafa has got to start putting in the hard yards in practice. that is the only reason others are catching up. they are more hungry and are working harder.
he has to do the following:
1. work on the backhand
2. the return
3. the serve
4. fitness
we need to verify this. I saw this on facebook as I was having a lightening quick look there.
Toni Nadal said," We don't deserve the victory, Nishikori deserves it. He played better than us the whole time... We had a lot of luck today. We didn't really come back, he was hurt."
it almost sounds like uncle tony is not really happy with the way clay warrior played.
I have been looking at the highlights. rafa did not return well and he also tried running around his backhand a bit too much.
also I thought rafa's shots lacked the venom and the mustard. he did not hard enough and forcefully enough.
rafa has one hell of a window. he really needs to be taking advantage of this:
nole has wrist issues
andy murray is not 100%
roger is getting old
del potro is out of the game
rafa is allowing himself to be pushed around by the players he has not lost to in 10 years.
still there is a way out of this: just do all you can to win rome and RG and many of the issues go away temporarily.
for the long run, rafa has got to start putting in the hard yards in practice. that is the only reason others are catching up. they are more hungry and are working harder.
he has to do the following:
1. work on the backhand
2. the return
3. the serve
4. fitness
I agree with you 100%, the return of serve and backhand at the moment are not even Top 20. How can Rafa not see it? Focus on that, practice twice a day if necessary. He is getting lazy with all the fame and fortune.
that is exactly what it is: fame and fortune. and endless world hunger for his time and for his attention.
this has cost him his game.
he is refusing to focus on his place in history and how he can really make his mark. he has one hell of a window right now and he is not taking advantage.
the man is world #1 and has 8 RG crowns and the tennis world is saying that stan and nishikori are the favorite for RG. how the bloody hell can that kind of talk persist with nadal ruling the clay for a decade.
he should not allow that to happen. he is still not 28 and still in his prime.
it is pretty damn clear to me that he is not listening to anybody but himself. tony is just a cheerleader at this point in time.
His inner motivation is not as strong as it used to be and that is understandable. He is definitely distracted with all the charity work, poker, golf and whatnot. So hopefully those losses to Ferrer and Almagro plus the scare against Nishikori give him a good dose of reality and he realizes that something serious needs to be done if he wants to be a contender for any big title from now on.